ISLAMABAD, March 8: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is set to launch a large-scale campaign to control the fast growing population of wild boars in the federal capital.

The CDA frequently award wild boar hunting licences to those, who are interested in nocturnal hunting with the help of shot guns and hunting dogs.

But such campaigns hardly made any impact on the fast growing population of wild boars. This time the Authority has decided to kill these beasts in larger number by using poison.

The director-general environment, Mazhar Hussain, of the CDA told Dawn that this method to control and bring down the population of wild boars had been employed earlier as well, which proved quite effective.

“These wild boars have infested the green belts, the natural streams and brooks running down from the Margallas and criss- crossing the city and the vast Islamabad Park area (Zone-IV).” Mazhar Hussain said these beasts were entering the residential areas and there had been reports that they attacked solitary pedestrians in the city streets late in the evening.

“Besides, the incidents of road accidents because of these wild boars are also on the rise and people have started complaining about their presence in the streets after sunset,” he said.

He added that the breeding areas of wild boars had been identified all over the federal capital, especially in brooks and streams, the green belt areas thickly covered by vegetation, marshy areas around Rawal Lake, behind Shakarparian and at the foothills of Margallas.

He warned people in the villages around the capital in urban areas in particular and within the city limits in general to keep their milch and pet animals confined to their pens and not let those go stray out for grazing or scavenging as those might get poisoned as well.

The DG said poison would be spread over vast areas in the rural Islamabad, especially around Rawal Lake, the diplomatic enclave, at the foothills of Margallas, behind Shakarparian, Malpur village, Quaid-i-Azam University area, around Pakistan Sports Complex, Rawal Town, Margalla Town and Shehzad Town.

He said these areas are thickly infested with wild boars and provide excellent breeding grounds for the beasts. He warned people living in these areas not to let their domestic or pet animals go stray in the jungle or marshy areas as those will be the places where the CDA would spread poison to eliminate wild boars.